Juicy Couture Files Lawsuit

Juicy Couture leisure suits have become standard in any well-heeled woman's closet. So how could anyone confuse them with outerwear jackets? Just in case you do, Juicy Couture has filed a copyright infringement suit against Jesus Juice Coature coat manufacturers.

Apparently both brands share a font (that ornate J that signals style) and Juicy Couture came first, with Jesus Juice Coature following. In court documents, Juicy names Jesus Juice as "unfair competition," and objects to the company's marketing via MySpace, Facebook, their blog as well as a large NYC billboard.

The fonts are clearly similar, but the products don't resemble each other, leading fashion folks to wonder how this will turn out in the end?

New York Law School's legal reporting blog, LASIS
analyzes the likelihood of Juicy Couture's success in this lawsuit. Overall, most media sources seem to think that the lawsuit is rather silly. SheFinds wonders how anyone could confuse a coat with a leisure suit and CocoPerez called the suit ridiculous.

So how does it look from a legal standpoint? According to LASIS, it will depend on whether or not Juicy Couture causes a "likelihood of confusion" amongst consumers - giving the impression that Juicy Couture somehow approved, endorsed or sponsored Jesus Juice Coature's products. Overall, LASIS says that Juicy Couture's case doesn't seem very strong and cites legal experts that agree.

While it seems unlikely that the luxury brand lovers that buy soft Juicy Couture leisure suits would decide to downgrade to the affordably priced Jesus Juice Coature label, the case definitely bears watching from a fashion standpoint. After all, who would want to wear Jesus Juice when you could go Juicy?

Carly Zinderman

Carly Zinderman is a Senior Staff Writer for JustLuxe, based just outside of Los Angeles, CA. Since graduating from Occidental College with a degree in English and Comparative Literary Studies, she has written on a variety of topics for books, magazines and online publications, but loves fashion and style best. In her spare time, when she?s not writing, Carly enjoys watching old movies, reading...(Read More)